1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to wireless communications and more particularly to monitoring performance of wireless communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional wireless communication systems communicate over a cellular network with mobile communication devices, such as cellular telephones, mobile computers, tablets, and other communication, computing, and consumer devices. Conventional cellular systems provide communication services to the communication devices over wide areas, such as cities, using multiple transmission towers transmitting to respective macro cells. However, certain environments may have poor coverage due to geography, buildings, or other impediments to wireless services. In order to address such coverage issues, and provide enhanced communication capabilities over a relatively small geographic region, distributed antenna systems (DAS) have been deployed.
Distributed antenna systems include a plurality of spatially separated antennas to provide wireless communication services for a limited coverage area. The coverage area of the DAS network may be a campus, stadium, office building, or other such limited geographic location or structure. The power provided to each antenna is typically less than that provided to a transmitter of a conventional cellular system since the coverage area of each antenna is much smaller than a conventional macro cell.
Monitoring performance of conventional wireless networks to evaluate and adjust resource utilization to improve performance can be difficult. Monitoring of DAS networks can be even more problematic where the DAS networks are deployed in limited geographic areas, such as an office building or stadium.
Accordingly, improvements in monitoring network performance are desirable.